There have been seven runway incursion incidents at Delhi's IGI Airport and one each in two other cities between October last year and this April.
"There were a few cases of runway incursions at Delhi, Kolkata and Vijayawada airports recently but none of them was a case of near mishap," Minister of State for Civil Aviation K C Venugopal informed Rajya Sabha today.
In most cases, the air traffic control had instructed the approaching aircraft to make a 'go-around', he said. A go- around is an aborted landing of an aircraft on final approach, leading to another attempt to land.
Replying to another question, Venugopal said the total dues of various Indian carriers to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have risen to almost Rs 2,220 crore as on March 31 from Rs 1,666 crore in 2012 and Rs 1,043 crore in 2011.
Of this, Air India and its subsidiaries jointly owed Rs 1,618 crore in 2013, Rs 1,252 crore in 2012 and Rs 737 crore in 2011.
While the grounded Kingfisher Airline had dues of Rs 202.48 crore in 2013, Rs 197.81 crore in 2012 and Rs 197 crore in the previous year, Jet Airways and its subsidiary JetLite together owed AAI Rs 102.39 crore, Rs 140.88 crore and Rs 31.95 crore in these three years.
Similarly, all foreign airlines together owed AAI Rs 187 crore, Rs 186.44 crore and Rs 168.47 crore in 2013, 2012 and 2011, with the Gulf carrier Emirates owing the maximum.
To another question, Veugopal said traffic rights on 13 new international routes have been granted to Indian carriers.
These routes would cover destinations like Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Moscow, Sydney, Melbourne, Nairobi, Al Najaf, Jakarta, Zurich, Tashkent, Ho Chi Minh City and Macau, he said.
